Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: So Much To Learn At Quilt Market

Each quilt market is a life experience in and of itself. I always learn so much about this industry, business, life, people, social media, the world, selling, buying and the list goes on.

Here are some things I learned while speaking with customers, co-workers, competitors and sages of the industry…..you know, those guys that have been in the fabric business for a lifetime and are a wealth of knowledge. Kind of like my dad who has worked for over 50 years in fabrics, or like so many others that I spent time with at market chatting about all the changes taking place, the challenges and how fast everything is happening. It is remarkable how fast things are moving.

On the blogging front I received so much constructive and valuable feedback. For example, I was challenged to make up my mind about who my blog audience really is. Is it consumers or shop owners? Hmmm, that was an excellent question. Well, I didn’t consider my audience as much as I considered my blog brand name: Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive (TOAFGTE). That is my mantra and I am sticking to it. Am I being selfish? It’s always about you Scott. You sound like my wife.

Anyhow, these are my stories, 50 or so a year, take them or leave them. Read them or don’t read them. I will just continue to kick that can down the road for now. Selfish again? I just can’t please everyone. I do acknowledge the suggestion and appreciate the constructive criticism, but I am sticking with my guiding (TOAFGTE) force.

Another suggestion I heard was that I should avoid the grinchy and negative blogs. I can live with that suggestion because no one cares to hear about my problems, but maybe on the other hand they do. Usually my most grinchy blogs stimulate the most comments and discussions. That being said, the lawyer in me wants to retort that I am just not happy with everything all the time and I like to tell it how it is without sugar coating. Unfortunately, life is not always filled with rainbows and ice cream, although that would be fantastic. If you want happy boring Scott, I guess I will have to give in to that one the best I can. I am going to need to order more happy pills. I freaking hate happy boring Scott and I am not sure that you will like him either. Anyway…I guess we will have to wait it and out see.

Another suggestion was to write shorter blogs and newsletters. (I write those too for SE & BQC in case you were wondering). You want shorter? You got it.

1 thought on “Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: So Much To Learn At Quilt Market”

I found the suggestions about your blog interesting. I like the perspective from which you write, but understand that some may find it “confusing” because they don’t know to whom you are talking. I’m kind of in a unique situation because although I am not a shop owner, I’ve been much more than an instructor for a variety of quilt shops. I’ve helped pick fabrics, schedule classes, deal with customers and manufacturers, etc.; and I’ll be the first to admit I like my role as “non-owner” because it is much less stressful. I’m also a consumer, which is always fun. 🙂

I know that many people (especially consumers) really want and like frequent giveaways and contests, and feel that it is a great way to increase name recognition, introduce a new fabric lines, etc.; but what they don’t realize is that someone has to pay for all those door prizes and giveaways. How are they paid for? Increased prices to shop owners and ultimately to the consumer. I know this may seem like a silly comment from someone who just received a boatload of fabric from Blank Quilting and who was a Desire to Inspire designer, but I think you understand what I’m trying to say.

I have similar feelings about all the free patterns available on line. I admit that I enjoy them and even offer some on my blog; but it does take away from the number of people who will buy patterns. Why buy something when you can get something similar for free? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had students ask if I’ll write a tutorial on my blog for a particular pattern so they don’t have to buy it or take the class that I’m offering. They figure they’ll garner all the information they need from my tutorial and avoid spending the money for a patten.

And finally, regarding the length of your posts. I just finished reading a couple of “How to grow your blog readership” articles and every single one of them said that in order to make the content worthwhile, you need to write longer posts. Those short 200-500 word post should be kept for enticing the readers to “stop back tomorrow for the whole story” posts. So, I guess that since many of my comments are longer than your blogs, it’s because I feel like I have a bunch of really worthwhile information to relay. hahaha